Rakhi Nikhanj

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT RAKHI NIKHANJ

Rakhi Nikhanj is a registered patent attorney with 15 years of experience advocating for her clients ranging from fortune 500 companies to start-up companies and individual inventors. Rakhi is the Past President of the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association (MIPLA) and was named LegalCORPS 2016 Volunteer of the Year.Rakhi helps her clients achieve business goals through creative problem solving applied to patent application preparation and prosecution, clearance and freedom to operate analysis, due diligence analysis, licensing and patent portfolio valuation and management, and post grant proceedings. Her patent work has spanned a variety of technological areas such as medical devices including cardiac rhythm management devices, high technology filters, hazardous material handling, acoustics, electrical device venting, radio frequency and other communication systems, packaging, construction, and waste treatment. Rakhi has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the University of New Hampshire School of Law). She has been a volunteer for the LegalCORPS Inventor Assistance Program since 2012. As part of that work, she gives informational sessions to groups of pro se inventors and represents low-income inventors in pursuing patents. As a mechanical engineer and in her engineering coursework, Rakhi was exposed to many different areas of technology that gave her an appreciation for client innovation including designing, developing and testing a consumer product involving thermoelectric circuits for a small business, helping Habitat for Humanity develop sustainable construction techniques, and designing and building personalized rehabilitation devices for severely disabled clients for the State of Wisconsin. These experiences have helped Rakhi understand the design process, which helps her understand and meet the needs of her clients.